Recoil pad



J. R. CALDWELL.

B ECOIL PAD.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 29, 1920.

1,418,532 Patented u 6, 19220 lmw fmfiww Jmmer GYM $205655,

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JAMES R. CALDWELL, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT. ASSIGNORg'TO THE SEAMLESS I RUBBER COMPANY, INC., OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT,

MASSACHUSETTS.

A CORPORATION OF RECOIL PAD.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 6, 1922.

Application filed March 29, 1920. Serial No. 369,556.

T 0 all 1072012177 722 my concern Be it known that I. JAMES R. CALDWELL, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of New Haven, county of New Haven, and State of Connecticut. have invented an Improvement in Recoil Pads. of which the following description. in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like characters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention relates to recoil pads for use on the butts of fire arms. My invention more particularly aims to provide a device of this character which will provide an ef fective cushion and be durable in use and one which will not in any way disturb the aim by forces set up by the recoil.

Vhile my invention may be embodied in various forms the principles exemplified thereby may be readily understood from the description of a single illustrative em bodiment such as that shown in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a vertical section of a recoil pad in place on a gun stock;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the inner face of th pad with the base plate removed; and

Fig. 3 is a section through the pad on the plane indicated by the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

eferring to the drawings, the pad may comprise a suitable base plate 5 of the general contour of the end of the gun stock 7 and providing means for attaching the pad as a whole thereto. This plate 5 is conveniently formed of hard vulcanized rubber. Secured to this base plate is a hollow body portion 9 of similar shape and plan, as shown in Fig. 2, and suitably curved to fit the shoulder. This body portion 9 is conveniently formed of soft rubber. The word soft is used in contradistinction to the hard rubber or ebonite which forms the plate 5. The material, however, is a suitable rubber compound with the filling or loading materials commonly employed in the art to make it durable since it provides the outer preferably self-sustaining and adapted to maintain its own shape, the walls thereof are preferably relatively thin to provide a large interior cavity 11. These relatively thin walls are supported by a suitable cushioning material 13 received by this cavity and which provides-the yielding quality in the pad as a whole. While various cushionlng materials might be used, the desirable qualities, hereinafter more fully referred to, are best exemplified by the so-called rubber factice which is a vulcanized vegetable oil such as oil of rape seed. This oil isvulcanized by the so-called cold cure process, being mixed with sulphur chloride and heated to a moderate temperature. The hydrochloric acid which results from the reaction is preferably neutralized and while still fluid the factice may be poured or cast into the cavity 11 and will congeal as a relatively solid mass inside the same closely fitting the cavity and forming a support for the Walls of the body member 9.

The vulcanized oil is a resilient body of a porous character but the pores are fine so that with the naked eye the material has no marked structure and might be termed an amorphous, 'concrete mass. This per mits it to yield in any direction as distinguished from devices which depend for their yielding nature on their shape since in these a deformation primarily takes place in a certain definite direction and if pressure is applied in some other direction a resultant force is set up at some angle thereto. The qualities realized fully by the properties of the vulcanized oil have particular application to a device of this kind, as will appear later in the description.

The base plate 5 and body member 9 are preferably vulcanized separately as this permits each to be made of the best quality of material for the purpose and cured in the best possible manner. After the filling 13 is cast into the body 9 the latter is secured with its open side facing the base plate 5 as seen in Fig. 1. For this purpose there may have been vulcanized with the latter a thin layer 15 of less hard stock. This permits the parts as a whole to be submitted to a second vulcanization which will cause the body 9 to be most firmly connected with the base plate 5. Ordinarily the base plate 5 and the body 9 would be of diiferent colors. For example, the base plate 5 would be black and the body 9 red. Conveniently the film 15 which is in the first instance cured with the 'member 5 is of a color to correspond screws and plugs 23 of soft rubber may be inserted .to close the holes.

In the pad here shown the body portion 9 may be made of freely flexible rubber, yet at the same time of a compound adapted to resist wear and not in itself exceptionally yielding or resilient. This is because the body portion 9 is not depended upon primarily for cushioning qualities. The relatively thin walls thereof are, however, freely flexible but are kept in shape and prevented.

from wearing out and breaking by the filling 13 which, when rubber factice is used, may be cast into position in such a way as to completely fill the opening 11 and provide a uniform support for the walls of the body portion 9. At the same time the wearresisting walls protect the porous, and therefore relatively friable, cushioning material 13 from wear. This, material being solid lasts indefinitely as long as the walls themselves and does not harden with age. The neutralized rubber factice will have no deteriorating effect on the surrounding rubber of the other parts of the pad. The material is softer and more resilient than the usual grades of vulcanized rubber. A solid rubber pad, for example, would not be sufficiently yielding. Furthermore, the yielding quality of the filling 13, which is available to the fullest extent because of the thinness and flexibility of the walls containing it, may be characterized as universal. In

Conveniently other words, compression may take place in practically any direction, the effect being similar to a pneumatic cushion as distinguished from structural springs whether of metal, rubber or the like, which by virtue of their compression set up various side- "wise forces which in the case of a recoil pad might throw up the muzzle of the gun and destroy the accuracy of shooting. As distinguished from a pneumatic cushion, on the other hand, the solid material is not subject to leaking and supports and holds in shape the enclosing body ortion 9.

Having thus described 1n detail the particular form of my invention shown by way of example in the accompanying drawings, the principles exemplified thereby which I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent I shall express in the following claims 1. A recoil pad for gun stocks comprising a relatively thin walled bodyof soft rulbber filled and supported by a vulcanized o1 2. A recoil pad for gun stocks comprising a hollow protecting body of wear-resisting rubber having thin walls of such mass as to be self-sustaining in form but freely flexible without substantial inherent resist- JAMES R. CALDWELL. 

